The day book. (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917, November 23, 1912, Image 18

Image and text provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

THE FLAW IN THE TITLEBy H. M. Egbert.'(Copyright by W. G. Chapman.)Cephas Merritt was dead Merntt, the rich, eccentric, philanthropic old merchant.of Grandboulevard, whose name had beena synonym of integrity in Martinsville for forty years. And thebig store and the bank and the in-Etnrnnr"No, Miss Mary, It's Mine."numerable pieces of real estatethat he had pwned here and therein the state capital had fallen t6his miserly nephew, HamiltonHall.Hamilton spent five days withhis lawyer, and at the end of thatperiod discovered that one-fourthof Cephas' tenants had been living rent free for years. For muchof the property was in the poorestpart of the city and Cephas hadnever turned a poor tenant outof doors in his life.But not all of Cephas' tenantshad been poor. One of them, MissSidonia Travers, occupied the oldTravers mansion on HurlandHeights, which had come to heron the death of her father twentyyears previously. When Hall readthis name he whistled; and whenthe lawyer told him -that she too,lived rent free, he whisteld again."You see, it's this way, Mr.Hall," said the lawyer, "Miss Sidonia believes that the propertyis hers. She's got only a tiny mcome of six dollars a week outsideit, and if she lost it she'd be practically a beggar she and herniece, Mary Travers.""Never mind about Mary; goon," said Hamilton Hall, wettinghis lips."Well, sir, the property isn'thers at all. The title's faulty. Itbelonged to Mr. Merritt. But hewas an old friend of hers theysay he was once her suitor andhe'd have cut off his right handrather than let her know she washis-4enant. If that old lady lostTravers- house .she'd not surviveit many weeks, Mr. Hall. So allthis time she's lived in youruncle's house rent free, andthought it hers. And I know hemeam to deed it to h,er in his will,only he couldn't bear even to lether know the truth, and then heexpected to survive her!""Then I have the right to it?"exclaimed Hamilton eagerly.His lawyer looked him up anddown. He knew what.was passing through his mind. He knew.